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Wife in £4million divorce may be evicted

THE wife of a property tycoon once said to be worth £400million claims she and her two daughters may be forced to become squatters in their luxury home after being served with an eviction notice.

Michelle Young, 45, and her teenage daughters have been living in the £10,000-a-month rented apartment in Regents Park, north London, since she split from her husband Scot Young, three years ago.

But the former model claims she faces homelessness and financial ruin after her husband stopped paying maintenance in April. She has since been served with a possession order on the £2.8million apartment.

Mr Young, 47, who is friends with billionaire entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter and Top Shop boss Sir Philip Green, had been paying the £10,000-a-month rent on the property, plus the girls’ £36,000-a-year school fees. But he now claims to have been left penniless by the credit crunch.

Last month he was granted a 10-week extension to a High Court order forcing him to hand over documents proving the disappearance of his fortune.

His lawyers told the court he had suffered a mental breakdown, but Mrs Young’s legal team claim he faked the disorder as a stalling technique. Mrs Young said she intends to fight the eviction and may even squat in the elegant townhouse apartment to prevent her and daughters, Scarlet, 17, and Sasha, 14, becoming homeless.

She is understood to be planning to argue there is “more than meets the eye” to her pending eviction.

The property’s owners are listed on the land registry as the Bolands, a wealthy couple from New York, but Mrs Young claims the home is actually owned by her husband.

Mr Young denies being the owner of the property and insists he is doing everything possible to prevent his family being evicted.

In statement yesterday, he said: “I have done everything to assist in every way to assure my family has occupation of the property.”

Yesterday, Mrs Young attended the first stage of a possession hearing at Central London County Court, which was adjourned until next week.

In the High Court case, Mr Young has until November 13 to produce part of the information requested about his financial state and business affairs, plus UK bank accounts and tax records. He faces six months in jail if he misses the ­deadline.

Mrs Young’s counsel, David Balcombe QC, told the High Court judge last ­Monday: “There were some misgivings as to who was behind that notice to quit.It is believed on the wife’s side that the ultimate owner is not the person named as the landlord but Mr Young himself and that he has been using this as another means of increasing ­pressure